


Alamogordo

by bessemerprocess



Category: In Plain Sight
Genre: Case Fic, Family, Gen, Kidnapping, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 21:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Mary, Marshall is at Presbyterian. They won't tell me anything else," Stan says. His voice is shaky and that's enough to scare Mary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alamogordo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starseverywhere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starseverywhere/gifts).



"Mary, Marshall is at Presbyterian. They won't tell me anything else," Stan says. His voice is shaky and that's enough to scare Mary.

"Fifteen minutes. Tell Marshall he has to hang on for fifteen minutes," Mary say and hangs up, already on the move. She shuts off her brain, she has to, or she'll end up crashing the car. She can't think about Marshall until she gets to the hospital.

***

Marshall is sitting up getting stitches when Mary comes running into the ER.

"You ass!"

"Hey," Marshall says, voice slightly slurred and a smile on his face.

"Dammit, Marshall, I thought you were dying," Mary says, even though the anger is slipping away.

"Tranq dart. I was sleeping off the effects," Marshal responds with a shrug.

The doctor give him the evil eye. "Stay still, please, sir."

"Someone wanted you out of the way," Mary says, head cocked to the side.

"Someone wanted to bag me," Marshall answers.

"So why aren't you bagged?"

"Lucky, I guess."

Mary glares.

"Okay, maybe I had some help from Bobby's boys in blue."

"Otherwise known as some cops saved your ass."

"Otherwise known as," Marshall confirms.

"You're all done," the doctor says, disrupting their banter.

"Back to the office?" Mary asks.

"Back to the office," Marshall says with a nod

***

"Marshall!" Stan says grimly as they walk in the door.

Marshall is still leaning on Mary a little, and his own blood still stands out on his white shirt, but the slur is gone from his speech. "I'm fine," he says, waving Stan and Eleanor off.

"It's not that," Stan says. "Marshall, your sister was kidnapped tonight. Police answered a 911 call from a group of hikers she was with in Copper Leaf State Park. Three masked men pulled her into a van as the hikers were packing up their cars to leave. The hikers got a partial plate, but the van was found, burned, three hours after Casey went missing."

Marshall sinks down into his chair.

"We found out twenty minutes ago, and I've already scrambled the local marshals," Stan says. "We've got everybody looking for her."

***

"You have sisters?" Mary asks.

"And brothers. Two of each," Marshall responds.

"How did I not know this?"

Marshall just looks at her.

"Okay, fine. So give me the run down. Chronological order."

"Me, Casey, Gabe, Coop, and Ellie. Ellie is a Marine. Coop is a programmer, Gabe is a professor, and Casey is an adrenaline junkie."

"Casey is the one that's missing."

"Right, Casey is a krav maga instructor. She mountain climbs, scuba dives, jumps out of perfectly good aircraft and off of tall buildings. Taking her wouldn't have been easy," Marshall says. "Though if they had tranq darts too..."

"Tranq darts?" Stan asks.

"The guys that tried to bag me tonight had tranq darts," Marshall says.

Marshall's cell rings, he looks at the screen. "It's my mother."

***

Marshall hangs up the phone. "Ellie was attacked tonight, too, but is fine. My father is checking in with Coop and Gabe."'

"This is sounding more and more like a professional job," Mary stops pacing long enough to say.

"But why?" Stan asks.

"We need to look at anyone who had a grudge against Marshall. Anyone with the resources to locate his family or hack into the WitSec system," Mary says.

Eleanor nods, and picks up the phone. "I'll check security breaches."

"I'll have your family moved here to a safe house," Stan says. "Just in case."

Mary pulls her chair over to Marshall's desk and sits. "Okay, Marshall, any witnesses, any criminals, any ex-girlfriends... boyfriends, anyone who would come after your family like this?"

"No one I can think of off the top of my head. You're the one who pisses people off."

"You're not wrong about that," Eleanor says, looking up from her computer screen. "No security breaches have been reported recently, here or at any WitSec branch. I've got them looking into other avenues of accessing Marshall's data."

"Okay, keep looking. Marshall and I are going to look through case files and see if anything gets shaken loose up in that brain of his," Mary says.

***

Mary is running on caffeine and adrenaline, and Marshall is sacked out on the couch, jacket over his head, sleeping off the last effects of the tranq dart when Tripp Mann is brought into the office. Mary can see the resemblance immediately. Marshall looks exactly like his father, just stretched four inches taller.

"Marshal Mann," Mary says, extending her hand. They shake as she makes introductions. "I'm Marshal Mary Shannon, this is Marshal Stan McQueen, and Eleanor Prince."

"Retired now," Tripp says, "three years. The government decided these knee were too old to be running after criminals and I don't know that I'd disagree. Call me Tripp."

"Well then, Tripp, let me just go get Marshall for you," Eleanor says after she shakes Tripp's hand.

A moment later, Eleanor returns with Marshall, jacket rumpled and hair askew, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"Dad," he says.

"Come here, Marshall," Tripp replies and pulls his oldest into a bone crushing hug. After, Tripp holds Marshall at arms length and looks him over carefully. "You're okay?"

"Fine, just a little residual fatigue from the tranq dart and a few new stitches. I'm fine," he says.

"Your mother is worried, and Ellie and the boys are at the hotel with her. We should go see them, but first, I need to show you this." Tripp hands over a worn envelope and Marshall carefully extracts the letter from inside.

"Marshal Mann,

If you ever want to see your daughter again, you will meet me at 32.900413, -105.960478, you know where. No law enforcement, no help, no weapons, just you."

The letter isn't signed.

"When did you get this?" Mary asks, taking the letter from his hands to further investigate it.

"It was in the mailbox this morning," Tripp says.

"Those coordinates are for Alamogordo," Eleanor says, pulling up a map on her computer.

"Alamogordo?" Marshall asks.

"Alamogordo. There was a bust, years ago. An informant tipped us off that major arms sale was going down just outside of Alamogordo. Damon Pryce was overseeing the job himself. He was running everything: weapons, drugs, people. We didn't know he was going be there. I shot him twice, but he survived. He's still in jail as far as I know," Tripp says.

"Eleanor," Stan says.

"Pulling up everything we've got on Damon Pryce now," Eleanor says as she types. "Damon Pryce was released on parole five months ago, and disappeared two days later. No one has seen or heard from him since."

"I take it there is bad blood between you? More than just being shot?" Mary asks Tripp.

"Pryce's partner, Myer Godwin, ratted him out and I helped Godwin broker a WitSec deal. Godwin rubbed his face in it a little at the trial, and Pryce swore to kill us both," Tripp explains.

"Looks like he's trying to keep that promise with interest," Mary says.

***

Marshall steps out on the balcony as Stan plans the raid with the local FBI and Mary follows him out.

Mary watches as Marshall paces. This is not how Marshall usually reacts, and watching him slowly and surely freak out is getting on her nerves. Usually she's the tense one, but circumstances dictate, and this is sure a circumstance.

"We'll get her back, Marshall," Mary says.

Marshall just looks at her.

"Your dad knows what you do," Mary says, more statement then question.

"He was still an active Marshall when I transferred into WitSec," Marshall says. "He's the only person I ever told."

"We will get the bastard," Mary says with renewed vigor.

Marshall just sighs, and leans in closer.

***

They go the safe house first. They can't go after Pryce until the and Marshall wants to see his mother.

Mary drives and Marshall stares out the window into the Albuquerque dusk. It's pretty enough, Mary has to admit, but she knows that's not why Marshall is studying it with such intensity. Somewhere out there his sister is spending the night as some criminal's hostage and Marshall isn't there to defend her. It must be a familiar feeling for him, after Spanky and everything, but Mary figures helplessness feels even worse the second time around.

Two marshals meet them outside the safe house. Security is even more through than usual; someone must have let slip that this was for one of their own. Inside, Mary can feel that tension that descends on people waiting for bad news even before Marshall's family rushes in.

"No news, mom," Marshall says before anything else. She forgets sometimes he grew up in a law enforcement family, that he had spent nights up waiting to see if his father would return alive.

"Marshall!" his mother exclaims and wraps him into a hug that he has to bend down for. His mother is shorter than Mary expected, but not any less commanding. Once she lets Marshall go, she sweeps Mary into a hug, even though Mary is projecting her best 'don't touch' vibe.

"Mom, this is my partner, Mary. Mary, my mom, Meg Mann," Marshall says once his mother releases her.

"We've heard all about you," Marshall's mother says, falling into the role of hostess easily, even in this barren safe house. "My other sons, Cooper and Gabriel, and my daughter Ellen."

Each of Marshall's siblings shake her hand, and Mary wonders what devil his parents had sold their soul to to get such a Rockwell picture family. Marshall's mom herds them into the living room.

Marshall sits next to Mary, pressing his knee against her's, even though there is enough room for another whole person. He's tense, every muscles coiled and ready to spring. He doesn't want to be sitting here, waiting, making socially acceptable small talk with this mother any more than she does. She wants to be out there, fixing this problem, bring down the bad guy, rescuing the girl, and so does he.

They can't go in until day break, though. It's too difficult to determine what kind of trap Pryce has set before than, though, so they are here instead.

"You're doing everything you can?" Marshall's mom asks, as Gabe goes to fetch coffee.

"Everything, mom. Dad is talking to our people right now."

***

They leave before dawn and arrive just as the sun is breaking over the horizon.

Alamogordo is hot this time of year. Hot enough Marshall wishes he could take his jacket off, but the jacket hides the gun, and the gun is going to be necessary today.

They have Tripp on an ear piece, but Marshall is still worried about sending his father in alone and unarmed. Backup is too far away, its hard to hide in the flat expanse of desert. They're almost a mile out and a lot can happen in a mile.

Mary's watching him like a hawk. He can feel her eyes on him as he paces. Pacing is her job, he knows, but he can't help himself. His father is walking into a trap and a murderer is holding his sister hostage. There are so many ways this day can get worse and Marshall doesn't want to see any of them.

Once Tripp is inside, they get the all clear. Damon is the only target in the abandoned bar, and there is no sign of surveillance, so Mary and Marshall can slowly creep in with SWAT on their tail.

"Casey," they can hear Tripp say over the wire, "are you okay?"

Her reply is faint, but Marshall can hear her say, "okay."

"Pryce, you arrogant prick," they hear Tripp say. "You came by yourself."

"Don't need anyone else to kill you, Mann. You're too easy. All I had to do was threaten one of your spawn and you come running. Now, tell me where Myer Godwin is and maybe I'll let Casey here go free."

"I see you're not offering to let me go free, too," Tripp says.

"Either way, you are dying here, Mann. If you cooperate, maybe your little girl will live," Pryce says, as Mary and Marshall creep closer to the door.

"I don't believe you."

"Yeah, well you don't have much of a choice, now do you? If you don't, well, lets see if some pain will make you tell me what I want.." Pryce is interupted by a solid thunk followed by a gun shot and a scream.

Marshall kicks down the door, and Mary heads in, gun drawn. The scene is surprisingly under control. Pryce is on the floor, his gun half way across the room, with Marshall's sister, Casey, on top of him. Tripp is on the floor too, holding his shoulder. Mary can't even tell if it's bleeding.

Casey's legs are still duct taped to the chair she had been held in so Marshall has to help her upright while Mary secures Pryce's gun and handcuffs him.

As soon as the cuff go on, Marshall rushes to his father's side. Tripp is on the ground, but the shot only grazed his arm, and he's talking as soon as he sees Marshall. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he says, as Marshall puts pressure on the wound and calls for medics.

Once SWAT fills in behind them, Mary leaves Pryce to them, and cuts frees Casey free from the chair. "Good work," Mary says and Casey just nods back.

***

"I was going to shoot each on of Tripp's precious spawn in between the eyes until he told me where Myer Goodwin was, and then I was going to shoot the rest of them, and Tripp and Myer too. Does that make you happy, bitch?" Pryce says, as Marshall watches from the other side of the glass.

"The part where I get to send you to death row? Yeah, that part makes me happy. That part where you tried to kill my partner, well, that makes me want to shoot you myself," Mary says and her fierceness makes Marshall smile.

***

"So, your dad," Mary says after.

"My dad."

"He'll be okay?"

"Not the first time he's taken a bullet. Probably won't even be the last."

"And you?"

"I'm just fine," Marshall says, and Mary believes him.


End file.
